Assyrian conquests

The Assyrian conquests occurred from 911 BC to 605 BC, during which time the mighty Assyrian Empire emerged as a major power in Mesopotamia and the Levant. The Assyrians created a powerful, brutal army as a tool for campaigns of conquest and sustained their empire through the exploitation of the conquered. Rulers such as Tiglath-Pileser III and Ashurbanipal were particularly fearsome military leaders with a clear-headed sense of the efficacy of terror. The empire was ultimately brought down by the Babylonians, Chaldeans, and Medes at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC.

Background
Assyria was originally a relatively small Mesopotamian kingdom that ruled the area around the cities of Ashur and Nineveh on the Tigris River. Its slow rise to supremacy began in the 14th century BCE. In its early history, Ashur was subject to conquest by more powerful Mesopotamian states. It was part of the empires of Sargon of Akkad and of the Babylonian Hammurabi. The Assyrians had, however, a tradition of war-making, carrying out expeditions to subdue the neighboring mountain peoples who raided their territory. Their soldiers were part-timers, who could only campaign for short periods before returning to work in the fields.

From the reign of Ashur-uballitl (1365-1330 BC) Assyrian military and diplomatic action became more expansive. Once subsidiary to Babylon, the Assyrians became its rulers after their king, Tikulti-ninurta I, sacked the city in 1235 BC. Assyrian power continued to wax and wane, subject to Babylonian resurgences and incursions by peoples from outside Mesopotamia. An early peak was reached under Tiglath-Pileser I (1115-1077 BC), but by the end of his reign the Assyrians were again under pressure, this time from invading Arameans. It was not until the late 10th century BCE that the Assyrian drive for empire resumed with renewed vigor.

History
The beginning of the rise of Assyria to imperial power is usually dated back to the reign of Adad-nirari II, who came to the throne in 911 BC. By the time Ashur-nasir-pal II had become Assyrian ruler, from 883-859 BC, the empire encompassed most of Mesopotamia and Lebanon. But it was only with the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III, from 745-727 BCE, that what is often referred to as the Neo-Assyrian Empire achieved its mature form. Not only were the frontiers of the empire extended south and east to include southern Mesopotamia, Palestine, and part of eastern Anatolia, but the Assyrian army was reorganized into a fighting machine of unprecedented efficiency and ruthlessness. Instead of levies raised for short-term service, Tiglath-Pileser III preferred to form a standing army.

The majority of the foot soldiers, who necessarily made up the numerical bulk of the army, were a mix of Assyrians and foreigners - mercenaries employed for their specialist military skills, contingents supplied by tributary states of the empire, and prisoners captured in the wars of conquest. They were equipped with bows, spears, shields, and armor by the efﬁcient Assyrian supply system. The Assyrians gave pride of place to missile weapons - in particular, powerful composite bows and slingshots. Each archer was accompanied by a spearman who held a large wicker shield to defend the bowman against enemy missiles and who would also protect him against close-quarters attack.

The elite of the army were the native Assyrians who formed the corps of charioteers and, with the passage of time, the cavalry. The Assyrians developed heavy four-horse chariots with a four-man crew, probably two elite warriors and their shield-bearers, the latter also responsible for driving the vehicle. Used en masse, these chariots constituted a formidable shock force on the battleﬁeld. The advantages of cavalry were something the Assyrians probably learned from their contact with nomadic horsemen such as the Scythians, who fought as skirmishers using the composite bow ﬁred from horseback. More usefully to the Assyrians, however, was their later development of heavy cavalry - armored riders with spears who practiced the cavalry charge and eventually supplanted the charioteers.

The Assyrian state was designed for the conquest of foreign lands. Roads were built to allow the easy movement of armies and a post system was created for rapid and effective military communications. Conquest itself fed the military machine, giving control of strategic resources - iron from Anatolia for weapons, horses for the chariots, and cavalry from western Iran - and generating a supply of manpower and of wealth in the form of tribute or plunder. Domination was maintained by the exercise of terror against those who dared to rebel. The Assyrians practiced the deportation of peoples who opposed them. Whether in combat or its aftermath, they readily practiced massacre and despoliation.

The pressures of empire
But the strains of maintaining a large empire with restive subject peoples were eventually to prove too much for Assyria. During the 7th century BC strategic overreach set in: the Assyrian empire reached its greatest extent and catastrophically imploded. Under Ashurbanipal (reigned 668-627 BCE) Assyrian armies campaigned deep into southern Egypt, destroying the city of Thebes in 663. The Elamites, enemies of the Assyrians in present-day western Iran, were ruthlessly conquered between 642 and 639, their cities looted and laid waste, their population deported. In the terrifying words of Ashurbanipal celebrating the defeat of Elam: "I left his ﬁelds empty of the voice of mankind." Yet even during Ashurbanipal's reign the pressures on Assyria were growing. There were just too many enemies. A Babylonian, Nabopolassar, made himself ruler of Babylon in 617 and initiated a series of campaigns that sapped Assyrian strength. He allied himself with the Medes and With the steppe hordes, capturing and sacking Nineveh, the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, in 612 BC. The remnants of the Assyrian army continued the war in alliance With Egypt, but the crushing Chaldean victory at Carchemish in 605 completed the destruction of Assyria.

Aftermath
After the defeat of the Assyrians the Neo-Babylonian Empire flourished, until the rise of a new people who would create an even mightier empire: the Persians. The Neo-Babylonian empire was founded by Nabopolassar, victor over the Assyrians, and his son, Nebuchadnezzar, who succeeded him in 605 BC. Nebuchadnezzar is remembered for destroying Jerusalem in 597 BC, and for exiling the Jews of Judaea into "Babylonian captivity".

From Anshan, in the old kingdom of Elam, came a new leader who swept through the Babylonian empire, conquering lands from the kingdom of Croesus in Anatolia to Central Asia in the space of 30 years (559-530 BC). In the new imperial heartland of Cyrus the Great, Parsa (western Iran), lived tribes who become known to the world as the Persians. Cyrus built a grand columned palace around great gardens at Pasargadae. His son, Cambyses II, conquered Egypt in 525 BC.